Thorns
by Harmony Panger
Summary: Harry was alone. His best friends seemed to have abandoned him alongside the rest of the school over the ridiculous tournament he was now being forced to enter, so when another girl from his year happens to come along and offers her friendship, Harry can see no reason to refuse... other than the fact that she is a Slytherin and no-one really has any idea of who she is.
1. A New Friend

**The only thing I own from this is my own character, everyone and everything else belongs to Rowling!**

* * *

Harry sighed as he dragged himself to his next lesson, Potions, with the Slytherins. He would honestly rather be anywhere else. He hated this stupid tournament and the stupid people in this stupid school. How could they all honestly think that he, a fourth-year student, would be able to trick an ancient artefact, magically protected by Dumbledore himself when literally nobody else could?

Ron was being ridiculous. Of course, he was. He'd always shown hints of jealousy towards everything that Harry had done. As if he would enter for a thousand galleons. He had seen his vault before, he wouldn't even notice if five thousand galleons went missing from it.

The worst part was Hermione, didn't believe him either. She had screamed at him calling him a liar and a deplorable cheat. She claimed that he had no respect for the rules, for authority or for tradition. After that, she had stalked off, not even bothering to try and hear his explanation.

Harry could feel his face heating up as he clenched his fists. He felt betrayed, his first two real friends had left him, and after four years of friendship, adventure, laughter and tears, they couldn't bring themselves to think that Harry wouldn't lie to them and he wouldn't betray them in the same way that they had betrayed him.

At first, Harry tried to keep away from it all by drowning himself in the books of the library. He thought he could probably learn something that would help him in the tournament. Unfortunately, he had forgotten how much time Hermione spent in the library and he couldn't stand the looks she gave him every time he turned a page. He really didn't want to argue with her, or Ron, but if they continued like that, he knew he wouldn't hold back.

In an attempt to find somewhere to stay on his own, he had found Dobby who had introduced him to the 'Come and Go room' that he had come to know as the Room of Requirement. He spent the time that he didn't spend in class, in bed or in the Great Hall here, and though it had only been a week, he had easily become accustomed to time alone. He didn't have to deal with the stares of girls who idolized him for acts he didn't remember doing, the glares of classmates who were as quick to turn on him as they were to run on him, and the feeling of disloyalty that stuck in his throat whenever he saw Hermione and Ron walking into the Great Hall and sitting as far from him as possible. It was better to be alone than ostracized and degraded.

As he entered the potions classroom, he took a seat at the very back and watched as more students began to pile in, none partner up with him. He watched Hermione grab hold of Ron and sit him at one of the seats at the front of the classroom. He put his head on the desk and simply waited for the arrival of Professor Snape and another gruelling session of 'How can we humiliate Harry Potter?!'

Suddenly, he felt a presence next to him and looked up to see a young girl donned in Slytherin robes. She looked oddly familiar which made sense as they were, of course, living in the same school. Her hair was long and curled, and pitch black, darker than Harry's hair and her eyes were a striking sky blue. She looked at him with a smile and set her eyes at the front of the room as Professor Snape entered and began instructing the class on the task for the day.

"Alright," the girl smiled as she turned to Harry, "I'll go and get the ingredients and you can read out the instructions?"

"Sure," Harry said, confused as to why she was so willing to talk to him, especially as a Slytherin. They worked quietly, the only real conversation being Harry's reading. Snape, surprisingly, left them alone; Harry assumed it was probably because he was sat with a Slytherin. They finished relatively quickly thanks to this and received a relatively good score for once, probably because marking Harry down would mean marking down one of the snakes.

Harry was prepared to just stare at the floor for the remainder of the lesson when the girl sat next to him began speaking.

"My name's Marissa," she said, smiling as always. Harry noticed that she spoke by enunciating every word correctly which made her sound quite esteemed with hints of Northern England, it was an odd mix for an accent but Harry found that he liked it.

"Harry."

"I know," of course she did, who didn't? "I also know something else about you," she said with a small giggle.

"What?" Harry asked, mildly intrigued. This was the longest conversation Harry had been in in the last week, it was nice.

"You didn't put your name in the Goblet," Harry tried not to look shocked. Obviously, he hadn't, but no one else believed him, why would a Slytherin? "You looked way too shocked when Dumbledore called your name, and besides, you aren't Slytherin enough to pull something like that off," she grinned at him.

"Really, now?" Harry countered playfully, "because I'm quite sure that only a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor got in. I don't see any Slytherins in there."

"We're too good for your little games," she said in mock aloofness and Harry laughed. For the first time since he had lost his friends, he legitimately laughed and Marissa joined in. She looked as though she was about to say something before she was interrupted by a knock at the door. Colin Creevey had arrived to take Harry for the weighing of the wands. Harry turned around before he left the classroom, seeing Marissa smile and wave at him as he left.

As he walked up silently with Creevey, he couldn't help but wonder, what did she want from him?

* * *

**I really hope you enjoyed this first chapter and I honestly can't wait to take this story further! Please remember to leave a review!**


	2. Why?

**Two chapters in two days! Woop-de-wooh, procrastination for the win!**

* * *

Harry sat at the dining hall playing and picking with his food. He was staring at his plate not really thinking about anything and listening to the general chatter of the children around him. Eventually, he decided to stand up, tired of wasting time in the hall and intending to head towards the room of requirement. As he looked up he noticed Marissa across the hall who smiled and waved for him to come over.

For a moment, he hesitated; being seen at the Slytherin table would probably ruin his reputation even more especially considering the way people reacted in his Second Year to his parseltongue. But a part of him, the more Gryffindor part of him thought, 'Screw it,' and he picked up his plate and headed towards the Slytherin table.

"Hey, Harry," she said brightly, "You looked pretty bored over there!" She now had her black curls in a tight plait that came over her shoulder and was tied back with a silver hairband.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"How did the wand-weighing session go she said between mouthfuls of food?" Harry was slightly confused by her eagerness to talk to him but was happy to have someone to talk to so answered.

"Alright, I guess. I did this ridiculous interview afterwards with Skeeter from the Daily Prophet," he sighed. Looking up, he noticed that Marissa had a deep scowl on her face that nearly scared Harry back to his table. Before he could ask he was interrupted by another one of the snakes.

"Potter. What do you think you are doing here?" Draco said, looking down at Harry.

"I invited him," Marissa said, her positive demeanour back with a smile on her face.

"Why?" he snapped back.

"He's my friend," her blue eyes piercing as they stared into his grey ones, a smile still lightly playing on her lips. Seemingly satisfied, or perhaps afraid as Harry thought, Draco sat a couple of seats down with Crabbe and Goyle.

"Now then, Harry," she said as she turned back to him, "eat up, your plate is still full."

"I'm not really-"

"Don't lie to me, Harry. I've seen you here at every meal and every time you have, like, a grape or a pea. Eat. You can't take on incredible dangers on an empty stomach."

"And if not?" Surprisingly, she grabbed hold of his spoon, took a spoonful of his food and shoved it into his mouth. They laughed as he wiped off the food that had smeared all over his mouth. She continued to feed him as though it were nothing between her own cuts of food keeping a confused grin on Harry's face for the remainder of the meal.

That Saturday, Harry was heading up to the Room of Requirement until he stumbled across Marissa coming out of the library carrying a few books.

"Hey, Marissa," he said with a smile to someone he now considered his only friend.

"Hi, Harry!" She had a huge grin on her face but as Harry looked over her shoulder he saw Hermione glaring at him incredulously. She barged past Marissa and looked Harry dead in the eye for the first time in a fortnight. "Who is that?" she hissed. Harry felt a sudden surge of rage and felt words tumble out of his mouth as days of bottled up anger exploded out of him.

"My friend, Hermione. My only friend right now. The only person who hasn't attacked, belittled or degraded me due to their own ignorance and lack of ability to actually research for themselves. Don't speak to her or me like that Granger. For someone who spends all their time library, you think you'd be smart enough to realise when your friend of four years isn't lying to you." Harry spat out every word looking coldly at Hermione before stalking off behind her as Marissa followed behind him a slight smirk playing on her face as she glanced back and saw the shock and few hints of regret in Hermione.

"You alright, Harry?" she said as she caught up to him, unsure of where they were going.

"I'm fine."

"I mean, you're clearly not but if you want to say anything I'm willing to listen."

"Why?" he snapped.

"Sorry?" she said, stepping back for a second before collecting herself and standing a bit taller.

"Why do you care about me? Why do you talk to me? Number one, you're a Slytherin, you snakes hate me. Number two, we didn't know each other until a week ago and rather than ignore me for the whole lesson like any other student in this damn school. So why, why are you willing to listen?"

"Because I know what it's like to be ostracized and alone. I know what it's like to have nobody because of idiotic rumours and ridiculous people. You looked like I did just a few years ago. It doesn't matter that you're a Gryffindor, you're another person. Shouldn't that be all you need?"

"I... I guess," Harry stopped for a moment and turned to look at her, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped."

"That's alright, you're going through some stuff," she said with a laugh. As Harry opened the nearest door she forced the books in her arms into his hands. Confused, Harry glanced back at her, his foot still in the door. Looking down he noticed several sticky notes poking out of the sides of the books.

"Combat and defence spells," she said, "I've researched the Tri-wizard tournament. Every single first task has to do with some form of combat with some ridiculously dangerous magical creature. You're going to need to make sure you're well protected."

"Thanks, Mary," Harry said with a grin as they stepped into what looked like a huge training area.

"Woah, what the hell is this?" Marissa acted shocked at the room they were in.

"Oh," Harry realised that he had basically dragged her to the Room of Requirement. He quickly explained and watched as her eyes glinted mischievously while her face remained mostly stoic.

"So this room becomes anything you want it to? Anything at all?"

"Pretty much."

"Epic," she replied, causing Harry to laugh at her choice of description for the room.

"What?" she asked, surprised by the sudden outburst.

"Nothing, you're just different," noticing the look on her face he quickly amended his statement," in the best possible way.

* * *

Five days later and Harry was struggling not to hex someone into oblivion every time he heard whispers of that stupid article by Rita. She'd made him seem like the most egotistical wimp. The stares he was receiving were completely unwarranted and terribly annoying. Why was he always the damn centre of attention?

He'd mostly avoided Hermione since his encounter with her but did notice that she tried to catch his eye or attempt to sit with him during lesson except Marissa was usually sat with him instead. When he'd brought the article up with her, she'd mentioned an article the witch had written about her father a while back made purely on baseless lies and accusations. Obviously, she didn't like the article either.

"Who is your dad? I might have seen the article?"

"Noone important," she had said, before quickly changing the subject to something else.

Hermione hadn't attempted to come near Harry during meal times, he sat mostly at the Slytherin table which earned him many glares from the other members of the house until they saw him sitting with Marissa who seemed to be friends with all of them.

He was now sat in the Great Hall with her, discussing tactics so he could best be prepared for whatever odd task would be thrown at him, until they were disturbed by Draco Malfoy.

"Did you sleep well, Potter? It's just that, we could hear your tears from our dorm and honestly, we'd like to have one night of good sleep before we watch the tournament with your parents," Draco said in mock-sympathy.

"Shut it, Draco," Marissa said glancing up at him.

"And why would I do that, Missa? He's walked straight into our den, why can't we have some fun?" he said laughing as he sat down next to her.

"You're being a jerk, Draco. Stop it."

"Whatever you say," he said with a shrug as he grabbed an apple from the centre of the table, before starting a conversation with the girl next to him. Harry was seriously surprised, Malfoy had honestly just given up a reason to torture him simply because someone had asked; Harry wasn't going to complain though. Any peace was good peace.

* * *

**Really hope you guys enjoyed that chapter, I'm so tired and worked really hard on it. Please review and let me know any mistakes or improvements you think could be made.**


	3. Trust

**I'm honestly really excited about working on this story right now which is why I've been updating a little bit more than normal, I'm really glad that some of you are liking it so far and I can't wait to see how the rest of it goes. By the way, any magical creatures mentioned in this chapter I've taken out of the _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them _book (I mean a copy that is meant to be like the one you'd get at Hogwarts, not the script) so I haven't just made them up and they all belong to JKR. Also, if a sentence is underlined, it means that it comes directly from the book.**

**Just a quick reminder, I don't own Harry Potter as he is a real human being and that would be considered slavery, he's not a house elf.**

* * *

Harry was counting down the hours to his meeting with Sirius. He was just going to have to hope that Gryffindor Tower would be empty by the time it got to 1 am. He could tell Hermione was trying to slowly edge his way back into his life and he was perfectly fine with that. She was one of his closest friends over the past 3 years, if she was willing to apologise he was willing to forgive, even if he had been a bit hostile towards her over the past few weeks. He'd also realised just how close the first task was and he still had no clue of how to prepare. He and Marissa had gone over a few pointers for what he should prepare for but he still wasn't sure of what he was doing. Marissa had done some research on previous tournaments and had noticed that the first task almost always included combat with some kind of dangerous creature; one year it had been erumpents and another year it had been kappas, both of which were creatures with extremely high danger ratings according to the Ministry of Magic. All Harry knew was that he was going to face something far more dangerous than he. He'd been walking around with a pit in his stomach for a few days until Marissa had suggested a trip to Hogsmeade. At the thought of a distraction, Harry had jumped at the idea.

"So, what's on your mind?" Marissa asked as they sat in The Three Broomsticks.

"Other than the fact that I might be dead by the end of the year, not much," Harry sighed.

"Yeah, but at this stage, that's normal for you isn't it? Between Voldemort and Basilisks, I'd think you'd be able to stroll through the tournament without a care," Marissa joked, earning a light smile from Harry. "Seriously though, what's up?"

Harry looked away from his mug and up at Marissa. They'd become pretty close over the past few weeks and they had been speaking to each other more and more. He trusted her and so he told her about Sirius.

"Trust me Mary," he said as he finished, "He's a great guy and is the closest thing I have right now to a dad." Her face was unreadable, she seemed to be caught between several different thoughts, not sure of which to express first. They sat in an odd silence for a while before the guffaw of Hagrid caught their attention as he walked over to them both with Mad-eye behind him.

"You alright Harry?" he said with a smile, "I see you've found yourself a lass." He began to laugh at the embarrassment on both of their faces as his announcement reached every set of ears in the pub.

"I'm fine, Hagrid, Professor Moody."

While Marissa started a conversation with Moody about an upcoming assignment, Hagrid leaned over to Harry and said as lightly as he could, "Harry, meet me tonight at midnight at me cabin. Wear that cloak." Slightly bewildered by his request, Harry looked up at the half-giant and nodded with a small smile. Before watching him leave with the Professor.

"Don't you have to meet with Black at one, though? How are you going to make it?"

"I'll just have to rush, Hagrid wouldn't call me over if it wasn't important, I think." Before their conversation could continue an annoying blonde jumped onto the seat next to Harry, with her quill and camera floating next to her.

"Harry darling," Rita said with a sickly smile, "I just over heard your conversation with Hogwarts' own keeper of keys, do you mind giving us any information on the young lady here?"  
"I'd love to give you some information," Marissa butted in before Harry could respond. He noticed the strained smile on her face as she feigned excitement. Before Rita could ask for anything specific Marissa said, "Did you know that in especially hot summers, England often gets hit with an infestation of ladybirds? They get everywhere and they always carry some sort of infection with them. It may be winter but I could swear it's been getting hotter, I could have sworn I overheard someone say that you're a big fan of insects. Am I wrong?"

Harry was rather confused by the exchange as the two females glared at each other while keeping their smiles plastered to their faces. "And who are you?" Rita spat looking down at the girl in front of her.

"Not important," she responded coolly, "What I could do to you is. I'd suggest you _bug _off before you get into bigger trouble than you can stir up for other people." With no response, Skeeter stood up and left the pub with one final glare at the Slytherin.

"What was that?" Harry asked Marissa, "What did you just do? Is she allergic to bugs or something?"  
"No, no, quite the opposite." Noticing that she wasn't explaining any further Harry dropped the subject and continued the rest of the day with her exploring Hogsmeade ignoring the stares of students and people who had either read articles or heard rumours about business they were not a part of.

* * *

"Yeah, that should work," Marissa said as she played with her hair. She and Harry were sat in the Great Hall for breakfast. Thankfully noone had interrupted Harry and Sirius during their conversation and Sirius was able to tell Harry that he should use the Conjunctivitis Curse on the dragon. "You're awfully calm for someone who has to face a dragon though Harry."

"Yeah, just wait for it to settle in and I'll start to panic," he said with a sigh.

"What's this I hear?" Draco said as he sat on the bench next to Harry, "Next on those vanquished by the Great Harry Potter, a dragon! The horror! Will he survive? Or will he tear that dragon to pieces and return to the Great Hall the next day with a pair of particularly scaly boots. We may never know," Draco said with a smirk as Marissa began to laugh. Though he tried to hide it, Harry felt a smile playing on his face at the sudden playfulness of the Malfoy next to him.

"Yeah, he's fighting a dragon. He wants to use the Conjunctivitis Curse," she said as she gave Draco a knowing look.

"Well, this won't do," Draco began.

"Why?" Harry said turning to the blond, "A dragon's eyes are their weakest point, why shouldn't I just get rid of it in the easiest way?"

"Harry this is entertainment..."

"In the form of a competition..."

"If you're going to be in it..."

"You have to try to win it..."

"Meaning that you have to go in with the most creative idea possible," Marissa finished as Harry looked at them both in confusion.

"I don't want to win," he eventually forced out, "I just want to survive."

"There's no fun in that Potter," Draco said as he took a bite of his food.

"Come on, Harry. We can think of something fun or exciting. The curse can be a solid Plan B."

"We're talking about facing a dragon, that's pretty exciting entertainment if you're on the sidelines," Harry said still confused as to why they needed him to win so badly.

"You are sat at the Slytherin table, Potter," Draco began, "if there's anything we are good at it's winning.."

"We know how to do it well," Marissa finished.

"OK, first of all, stop that it's weird, if you're going to start a sentence, finish it yourself. Secondly, when was the last time Slytherin won the House Cup?" Harry said with a smile as Marissa hit him over the head with a slice of toast.

Harry had found that Draco was actually alright on his own. Not as the bigot that he normally acted towards Harry and his friends, or as the snooty Malfoy that he acted as in front of his father. In his own house, he was just Draco, and Harry realised that just Draco was a pretty nice guy, especially when Marissa was around to keep his tongue tight.

"What's something that you're good at Harry?" Marissa said.

"Not much," Draco quickly intervened.

"Draco!" Marissa responded playfully, "Let him answer."

"I don't know, Quidditch? Flying?"

"You can't out fly a dragon, Potter, that's ridiculous."

"And a sure-fire way to get yourself killed," Marissa agreed, "Come on, something that sets you out from everyone else, anything at all?"  
"I'm a parselmouth?"

"Now that I can work with," she said with a smile, before leaving the two boys at the Slytherin table and rushing off to figure something out. Harry noticed as she left that Cedric Diggory was also leaving. As Harry got up to warn him about the upcoming task he felt himself pulled back down into his seat.

"We're trying to help you win, Potter, and you're already trying to give the competition some leverage," Draco hissed.

"It's not fair on Diggory, the rest of us know, why shouldn't he?"  
"It's not meant to be fair Harry. You're four years younger than the other contestants, that's not exactly fair either is it? He can prepare himself." Harry sat down properly as Draco finished his mini-tirade, ignoring the small nagging guilt in his stomach by filling it with food.

* * *

**I really hope you all enjoyed that, I spent quite a bit of time on this chapter and think it came out well but it's really up to you guys. Remember to leave any suggestions you have for the story going forwards. Thanks for reading!**


	4. Planning

**Alright, another one! I think you guys are enjoying this. I _hope _you guys are enjoying this. I have seen a couple of you attempt to guess who Marissa's father is. Yes he is important but I don't really know where he'll be revealed. I will mention, none of you have correctly guessed who he is. Happy guessing!**

* * *

"You alright Harry?" Marissa smiled as Harry stepped out of the Gryffindor common room. He nodded with a smile as the two headed down to the Great Hall to join Draco for lunch.

"So," Harry began as they sat at the Slytherin table, "are you planning on telling us what you're going to do with my amazing parseltongue skills?"

"That's the thing, you aren't that amazing," she said, her eyes focused on the table in front of her and not the words coming out of her mouth. Her eyes shot up as Draco nearly spat out his drink. "Oh, wait no, I didn't mean it like that," she corrected herself.

"Yeah," Harry rolled his eyes, "I can totally hear the truth in that."

"No, what I meant is, you've never actually trained your parseltongue, have you?"

"Trained it?"

"Exactly. It's still a magical skill, otherwise you could probably find muggles who can speak to reptiles."

"Reptiles?" Draco joined in, "I thought it was just snakes."

"Not just snakes. The books are kind of vague about it. At first it looked like reptiles only, but then it seemed to include amphibians and then literally anything that could remotely seem like a scaly creature."

"Such as?"

"Snakes, obviously, and turtles, lizards, toads, frogs, crocodiles and..." She continued to list off creatures, magical and otherwise as Harry and Draco continued to make their way through their breakfast only half listening.

"... and most importantly, dragons," Harry and Draco's heads shot up.

"He's able to talk to dragons?"

"Yes. So supposedly those animals can all communicate with each other on a basic level, sort of like when you've learnt a new language on a basic level, you can speak it, locals can understand you but it is kind of broken. There is an issue though."

"Which is?" Harry asked, rather excited to be able to use his parseltongue with a dragon. Then it set in, he wanted to attempt to talk to a dragon, fear rose in his chest again as he realised, one mistake could easily offend the beast and end with the dragon keepers peeling burnt ashy pieces of Harry off the stands.

"You need to have parseltongue mastered to be able to talk to any of the creatures and that takes years of practise. A couple of weeks isn't long enough to master it."

"Well, we can still use this," Draco started, "first of all, you need to begin practising parseltongue more because talking to animals is a skill you should 100% perfect," he said turned towards Harry, "also, we can still attempt something. You mentioned toads, right?" At Marissa's nod he continued, "Then Harry needs to go and talk to Neville."

* * *

Neville was sat with Seamus, Dean and Ron in the Gryffindor common room and Harry was honestly nervous about going over to talk to him. Neville hadn't shown him any ill will about the tournament, and had been pretty nice to Harry. It was Ron that was the problem. Ron had been Harry's first and best friend, he wasn't really angry with Ron, and would be willing to hang out with him the second he apologised, but right now, he was still pretty angry at Ron's lack of trust in him. Harry headed over to the table and asked Neville if he could come up to the dorm with him, ignoring the glares of the other boys.

Once they were upstairs Harry broke down his plan for Neville who was more than happy to help out as long as he was there to make sure that Trevor didn't get hurt or lost. After a quick thanks and a walk downstairs, the boys were now in the Room of Requirement with Marissa and Draco, the room rather small, with a few chairs, and a table. Neville kept himself close by Harry, or as far from Malfoy as possible. Yes, the torment had been less this year, maybe it was because misbehaviour in front of the foreign students would result in harsher consequences, maybe it was because he was more distracted by the tournament as everyone had noticed that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were working together now along with the Slytherin girl, or maybe it was just because Draco had decided to leave him alone for now, whatever the reason, Neville was just happy to be left alone but that didn't mean that he was going to suddenly become friendly and comfortable for him. He was just here to support Harry.

"Right," Marissa began, "Just talk to the frog like you would to a snake."

A small correction of "He's a toad actually," was heard from Neville before complete silence as Harry began focusing on the toad.

After a few moments he turned to them with a sigh, "I can't do it."

"You didn't even say anything!" Draco exclaimed, mildly frustrated.

"Yeah I know but, I could just tell I guess, it wouldn't work," he picked up Trevor and handed him over to Neville, "Thanks anyway mate."

"It's alright, I hope you figure out what you need for the tournament," Neville said before turning around and leaving the room.

The three remaining students flopped themselves onto the seats in frustration.

"I guess it was worth a shot," Harry said with a small smile.

"Was it?" Marissa said, "I mean, think about it properly, its not like we actually knew whether speaking to a toad would mean being able to speak to a damn dragon, and it's not like you could bring Trevor in with you."

"Isn't it?" Draco suddenly shot up.

"What?"

"Well, is there a rule against bringing in anything other than your wand and the robes on your back?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Marissa said, now sat up and staring at Draco, "Why?"

"Serpensortia," Draco murmured.

"That's brilliant," Harry said suddenly catching on.

"No, wait, what? You've lost me. What are you doing?"

"If I'm thinking the same thing as him," Harry began with a smile, "I could summon a snake and get it to talk to the dragon, either as a distraction or bait, then I could attack the dragon with the Conjunctivitis Curse."

"Right, boys," Marissa said, looking at both of them incredulously, "in what way, is that entertainment. All that we would see is you shoot a small snake out of your wand, or bring one in or whatever, then talk to it, then it hisses, then you shoot the curse at it. Why not just shoot the curse at it?"

"Because," Draco began, "He's going to engorge the snake."

"What?" the other two immediately replied.

"Two problems with Harry's description. I remember what happened in Second Year, the snake did not listen to you if you were seriously telling it to leaven Fletchley alone. You need to summon that snake now and develop a relationship with it."

"Then abandon it in the middle of a stadium and destroy the bond we make over the next couple of weeks?" Harry said, looking slightly confused.

"No, because you need to engorge it. Who says the dragon would be able to hear you or the snake over a screaming audience of over 1000 students? So, you speak to the snake, engorge it, it does its job, the audience is fascinated by this incredible beast of a snake, you do what you need to and there, you win."

"Guys this is insane. We've literally just decided that the best way to make it as entertaining as possible is to scare people even further by placing a dragon-sized snake in front of their faces and oh my god it might actually be stupid enough to work," Marissa suddenly realised.

"Yeah I guess so," Harry agreed, "it's probably why horror and thriller movies do well, we like being scared." They laughed and Harry asked, "So when do we start?"

"Now obviously," Draco responded, "You need to develop this bond with the snake as soon as possible. So summon it,"

"I have to do it?"

"Yeah, it might listen to you more or something," Draco said, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"Right, yeah, sure," Harry began muttering, working himself up. He already felt like he was in the ring with the beast he was soon to face, this would be the foundation for his task and if he messed up here, he'd mess up the entire competition.

"_Serpentsortia_!"

* * *

Harry was now preparing for bed. A foot-long grey-banded king snake was wrapped around one of his bed posts. Harry was unsure if she was sleeping, her eyes were open and unmoving but she wasn't making a sound. Mary had named her Cleo and the snake had accepted the name. It had only been a few hours but Cleo had already selected her place wrapped on Harry's arm and seemed to trust him. Not many people had noticed her yet other than a few Slytherins at dinner who had noticed Harry feeding her. The two of them could easily communicate and Cleo seemed happy enough. Harry had made sure to visit Hedwig, to feed her and introduce her to Cleo. Hedwig hadn't exactly reacted badly, but she had certainly seemed slightly off-put by the snake.

Harry was about to remove his glasses and head sleep for the night, when he suddenly noticed Ron walking over to his bed.

"Hey, Harry," Ron said, clearly uncomfortable and nervous.

"Yes."

"Neville let us know about the tournament. I didn't realise how dangerous it is. Course you didn't put your name in. I'm sorry, mate -"

"Forget it, Ron," Harry said with a smile.

"Seriously, Harry -"

"Yeah, I know, forget it."

Ron was about to ask something before squealing as Cleo adjusted herself on the post. "What the bloody hell is that?"

"Yeah, she's my plan for the first task," Harry said scratching his head, "It was Draco's idea."

"Right," Ron said, stepping back, "So you and Draco are good then?"

"Yeah, he's not all bad, we're not friends but we aren't, you know,"

"At each others throats?"

"Yeah, yeah I guess that's it."

"Sit with us, tomorrow at breakfast, Hermione missed having you at the table," Ron said, avoiding eye-contact.

"Yeah, maybe. I'll speak to the others tomorrow."

With that, it was like nothing had happened between the two of them, and Harry headed to bed with a grin on his face.

* * *

**Was that good? I don't know. I wrote it while in a hospital bed and hooked up to some weird medicine that has definitely knocked my brain out of sorts so feel free to let me know what mistakes I've made that need sorting out, and any suggestions you guys have. I hope you're all enjoying the story so far!**


	5. Apologies

**I'm sorry, I'm late, I know. I try to get out a chapter a month but exam season just hit and I did not expect it to be this much work. I'm exactly half way through so for a break I'm gonna write this chapter up! Hope you enjoy it! **

_Italics mean Cleo is speaking!_

* * *

It was Saturday. Tomorrow was Sunday. The first task, it was tomorrow, and Harry was finally starting to panic. He'd been carrying Cleo everywhere, to each lesson, meal and activity, she was always with him, whispering next to him. She was surprisingly sarcastic, constantly making snarky jokes at everyone else's expense, not too harsh, but funny enough to make Harry strain to hold laughter in. She clearly unsettled Ron and Hermione was clearly rather uncomfortable around her but was better at hiding her distaste than Ron.

Harry was now heading to the room of requirement, Cleo, of course, wrapped around his left arm, as he went to meet with Marissa and Draco to do one final run through of the task. As the door formed Harry had barely opened it before hearing shouting from inside.

"Draco you must!" Marissa was clearly exasperated.

"Why must I?" Draco said mocking her, the argument clearly wasn't serious as there was some playfulness to it, but Mary still seemed a little put off.

"Because Draco, Harry is our friend an-"

"Your friend."

"No Draco. I don't care what you say, it might only have been a couple of weeks but you two are friendly around each other. It was all the school could talk about, the great rivals of Gryffindor and Slytherin coming together on the eve of this god-forsaken tournament."

There was silence for a moment and then "Alright, fine. We're friends-ish, what does that have to do with Weasley and Granger?"

"They are Harry's best friends and if we want to remain friends with him then you have to apologise to them."

"Why should I apologise to them? Why not the other way?"

"Because you always start everything, Drake. You call Granger a mudblood, you've always started things with Weasley, put your damn pride away for a second and pick up the courage to apologise."

"Did you just tell me to stop being a Slytherin and start being a Gryffindor?" Draco said in mock-offence. There was another silence. "Fine! I'll apologise."

"Good," Marissa said as Harry finally decided to come out from behind the door, noticing that Marissa had hugged Draco, most likely because he finally agreed. "Ok, great we're all here now," she said turning to Harry with a smile.

"Yeah, everything alright?" Harry asked. _Clearly not, you seem to have interrupted a rather.. intimate moment.. perhaps we should leave them be._ Harry's cheeks began to burn red, worried that he had, as Cleo had put, 'interrupted an intimate moment.'

"What did she say?" Marissa said, eyebrow arched, clearly expecting an answer.

"Nothing, let's just start," Harry said quickly, hoping to move away from the topic of Marissa and Draco's... relationship.

* * *

It was the final dinner before the feast and Harry was finding it surprisingly easy to eat. He was constantly fluctuating between moments of extreme panic and sudden calm about the next day's event, he was sat half listening to Hermione listing off a bunch of protective spells he could use and Cleo giving less useful commentary in the background. He was thinking about the dragon and the next day, but wasn't worrying over it. It was odd, Harry wasn't really sure what he was feeling.

He was brought out of his musings by Hermione suddenly stopping her tirade and most of the Gryffindor table suddenly turning towards him as two Slytherin robed students sat in front of him calm as could be. "We thought we'd come and sit with you now that you've abandoned our table," Draco said with a smirk.

"No, that's not what it is at all," Harry began, worried that he'd offended the snakes by spending so much time with Ron and Hermione, he'd missed having them around.

"We know, Harry," Marissa said with a laugh, "this tournament must be flipping you over if you couldn't tell he was messing. If we were truly angry with you, you wouldn't be walking right now." Harry laughed as the rest of the Gryffindors brushed off the new arrivals, aware of Harry's new found relationship with them.

Hermione however was slightly different. "You are aware that this is the Gryffindor table, correct?"

"No, actually that's incorrect," Marissa shot back.

"Sorry?" Hermione was slightly taken aback, "If you've read Hogwarts: A History, or at the very least been at this school for a week, you'd know that there are different tables."

"Oh no. I am very much aware that there are different tables, but none of them are owned. See if you'd read more than just Hogwarts: A History, you'd realise there are a ton of other books about the way Hogwarts is built up and the way it works. The tables are only grouped into houses at the Welcome and Leaving feast, besides, where was the problem when Harry came and sat at our table?"

Hermione felt her face grow hot and grow hotter still as Ron came out with a laugh, "Wow Hermione, never thought we'd find one who knew more about Hogwarts than you."

"Yes, well," Hermione trailed off playing with her food and quietening down.

"Well, we did worry for a while about you when you went to sit over with them, mate," Ron said with a smile, "Thought you'd gone all evil on us, sitting with the snakes, carrying around a snake, heck, you can even talk to snakes." Marissa looked slightly offended for a moment, before realising that Ronald had been joking and gave a slight smile at his odd humour.

Suddenly Draco put his fork down, clanging it loudly against the table. Harry was confused, in the past four years he'd never seen Draco look so flustered and awkward. "Granger, Weasley," Draco began, turning to the two Gryffindors, "I would like to apologise for the attitudes that I have shown you, it was wrong and kind of stupid and I didn't really mean any of it, because you're both kind of smart and in an odd sort of way I have envied the two of you, especially - "

"Draco, you're babbling," Marissa said with a laugh. When he gets going, he gets going, doesn't he? What had started off as a coherent and script-like apology, had turned into a babbling mess of flattery as Draco seemed to get more and more embarrassed as he spoke.

"Right," Ron said, eyes narrowed, "And what brought this on?" Finally composed, Draco shrugged, "Do you want me to continue insulting you, Weasley?"

"No, you're good, I guess," Ron said, before turning back to his plate. Hermione said nothing, simply staring at Draco for a little while, which he tried to ignore and continue the meal until at least 5 minutes passed and nothing had been said. "If you've got something to say Granger, say it. At the very least, stop the goddamn staring, it's getting odd."

"We'll see."_ Really? 5 minutes of thought and the best she could come up with is "We'll see."?_

"We'll see what?" Draco turned to her.

"Whether you mean it, then I'll decide whether or not you are 'good' as Ron so eloquently put it."

"I did put it eloquently, didn't I?" Ron said, earning a laugh from both Harry and Marissa.

* * *

**It was short, it was weird and it was a bit of a filler chapter. I know it's not my best but like I said, these exams are more or less killing me. Next chapter will finally be the first task. Please remember to Vote and Comment!**


End file.
